Coated Brake Lines

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I'll be doing all the brake lines on the Rallye soon and was wondering if you can buy the coated brake lines, like the ones in 106's that are black in colour?

 

I did a search but couldn't find any about, I imagine I was using the wrong name!

 

Cheers, Ali

[welshpug 1,655]

you mean the original steel type?

[allye 530 3 Cars]

you mean the original steel type?

 

The original ones that came on 106's yer. They look as though they would last longer?

[Ryan 99]

I did mine with copper as normal, but coated it in black heatshink. Still looks like new 4 years later.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

I did mine with copper as normal, but coated it in black heatshink. Still looks like new 4 years later.

 

Not a bad idea, can you get heatshrink in long enough tubes, or do you use a few!?

[johnnyboy666 195 1 Cars]

how do you know if the break pipes are corroded if theyre covered up?

[welshpug 1,655]

look for the bubbling!

[Redtop 14 2 Cars]

Not a bad idea, can you get heatshrink in long enough tubes, or do you use a few!?

 

I normally buy heatshrink in my local trade electrical store in metre lengths. You could just do that and then join/overlap them in a place where it's not really seen. If you have a good heatgun, put the curved nozzle on it and that will shrink it all nicely .

 

I'd use kunifer pipe though as I find it looks better and doesn't knik as easliy as copper. Nicer stuff to work with. Get yourself one of these wee benders. Ive had one for 13 years and it's very good for making nice tight bends without kinking. I have a big beta one too, but you just can't get it to do nicer smaller bends as it does 3 different sizes of pipes, good for the metal fuel ones though.

 

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/Motorsport/B...ol/1734/0/41135

[Ryan 99]

Not a bad idea, can you get heatshrink in long enough tubes, or do you use a few!?

 

I bought 5m on ebay and it came as one 5m piece.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

You never have any issues with Mr.MOT? As above they need to inspect them.

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

They can only inspect what they can see, if they're covered up they cant do anything about it. Same as when you run them inside the car.

[Ryan 99]

I don't think there'll be much trouble with corrosion, as the heatshrink keeps the elements away from the pipes.

 

One of my rear pipes got damaged when I removed the beam, so out of curiosity I cut the heatshrink off to see how well the pipe had lasted after being under the car for three and a half years, and it literally looked like I'd made it yesterday.

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Sounds very good, something I will be doing as a lot of the things I am doing during the rebuild is focused towards maintenance free and prolonged life!

 

Thanks for the idea and info, great response as always!

[Anthony 1,002]

In my mind there's only really two things that will ruin a properly made copper brake pipes, and that's either kinking/crushing the pipe, or the union on the end siezing and twising the pipe as you try to undo it.

 

Covering the brake pipes with heatshrink or similar doesn't prevent either of those two issues, and indeed will actually prevent you from being able to visually inspect the pipes. Am I thus missing the reasoning/benefit somehow?

[shalmaneser 26]

Why not us copper? Works fine....